What is the saddest book you've ever read?

[TMAN10112]

"The Pearl" bye John Steinbeck, that was one depressing ending.

 

[dMighty]

Most recently "The Idiot" by Dostoevsky. Also "Armageddon in Retrospect" by Vonnegut, though that was more sadness for his passing.

 

[Lukeje]

One Hundred Years of Solitude. I can only say one thing; read it.

Not sad. Hauntingly beautiful, but tragi-comic, and not sad, I don't think.

The ending is beautiful; but also sad (and I was also expecting some English major to come and correct me that I've somehow 'missed the point'). You stated that it's 'tragi-comic'. Yes, the ending is comic, but still tragic. The way it wraps up the whole book and provides an explanation for all the suffering is what makes it beautiful ('tis one of the few books where I didn't see the twist coming a mile off).

 

[Kaotixthought]

Men dont have emotions and therefore cannot be sad.

 

[Lukeje]

Men dont have emotions and therefore cannot be sad.

Of course they can be sad. Have you never been to a football match where your team lost? You see men almost in tears.

 

[orifice]

The bible, it depressed the hell out of me!

 

[fedpayne]

One Hundred Years of Solitude. I can only say one thing; read it.

Not sad. Hauntingly beautiful, but tragi-comic, and not sad, I don't think.

The ending is beautiful; but also sad (and I was also expecting some English major to come and correct me that I've somehow 'missed the point'). You stated that it's 'tragi-comic'. Yes, the ending is comic, but still tragic. The way it wraps up the whole book and provides an explanation for all the suffering is what makes it beautiful ('tis one of the few books where I didn't see the twist coming a mile off).

Yerg, didn't mean to sound preachy. I guess I just didn't feel sad when I read it, for whatever reason.

I will concur with you when you advise everyone else to read it

 

[Rolling Thunder]

The problem with readinf Starship Troopers is that in only felt half-satrical. I honestly got the feeling that Heinelien actually beleived in some of the stuff. But I guess that's the essence of a good satire- it provokes thought, rather than encouraging simplicity and agreement.

 

[Chezzz]

i would say "I Am David"

read it a few years back, i thought it was very sad...

 

[MrSlick]

I almost cried when I read Bridge to Terabithia, when I was younger.

 

[Chiasm]

House of leaves

 

[Saskwach]

Sirens of Titan. *SPOILERS* The main characters - all of them - spend their entire lives being jerked around by fate and the whims of greater beings, and for nothing but some insubstantial and debatable 'betterment of the human race'. Oh, and a long distance greeting message. *Thus Endeth the spoilers*
Damn you Kurt Vonnegut!

 

[PAGEToap44]

1984 by George Orwell. It's just so hopeless and depressing. Read it and you'll find out why.

 

[SnowCold]

*sigh* The Giving Tree.

I don't read a lot of non-fiction.

Yeah, I don't really read books if they are sad onces, but the giving tree almost made me cry the first time I read it after age 6.
also Sharlot's web has a happy and sad at the same moment ending, though I DID cry at the movie, where they ruined it completly (Mainly beacuae the hebruw title was "the Magic farm")... damn y7ou Nickolodeon...

 

[Ravenbom]

I think I was going through a breakup when I read Snow Falling on Cedars, and by the time I got to the end of Chapter 16, I broke out in tears.
Overall, I find Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises to be one of the saddest books about unrequited love.

 

[ffxfriek]

i forgot what its caled but its about 2 bloodhounds that get killed by a mountain lion and a fern something grows...brings tears to my eyes

Where the red fern grows. And its quiet a good one.

yes and quite sad too

 

[Siuss]

Either "A Child Called 'IT'" or "The Shipping News"

Spoiler

it is just a tale of a mans horridly destructive life, involving, but not limited to, his two daughters being sold (at around ages 8 and 11 I think) into child pornography and prostitution.

Edited for spoiler tags I forgot.

The Shipping News? Not a sad book, fool! Sure, sad if you read only the first act, but it's about a man coming to terms with his life through humorous little incidents in Newfoundland. I love that book. And it is uplifting.

Ya, notice I used an example from the prior half of the book? I.E. When everything happening to Quoyle was horridly depressing and tragic. I didn't sit and read through all of the book in one sitting, so all those parts really were crushing at the time thank you very much!

 

[KrappR42]

I don't know if anyone's read it, but Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell is really quite moving. And Marley and Me by John Grogan had a depressing ending.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Just finished reading 'The Inferno', the first part of Dante's divine comedy. Not as such upsetting, more a case of being depressing when you realise how many of us are going to hell if it turns out that God really does exist... Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

[Elurindel]

I dunno but galaxy in flames almost made me cry. (part of the Horus Heresy)

I didn't think it was that sad. Sure, it's a shame to see the Primarchs fall and all the wonders of the galaxy squashed before they ever had a chance to become part of the current 40k fluff, but I've seen sadder.
To me, the saddest book I've read is The Lovely Bones. It's a child's story from heaven about how she is raped and murdered, then how she watches her family and friends, how they mourn her, are driven apart then come back together again. The killer is neevr arrested, and is stabbed with an icicle near the end as he tries to rape another girl.
The book then ends with "I wish you all a long and happy life."
What kind of horrible-ass book is this? One you shouldn't read.